Gaming News — 2026-05-11#

Top Story#

Nintendo officially announced a massive $50 price hike for the upcoming Switch 2, bringing the console to $499.99 in the U.S. amid rising component costs. To soften the blow and maintain momentum with frustrated investors, Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa confirmed multiple unannounced Switch 2 games are slated to be revealed and released in the second half of this fiscal year.

News & Reviews#

Forza Horizon 6 Suffers Disastrous Leak as Steam Preload Files Are Made Available Without Encryption Microsoft dropped the ball big time, accidentally pushing an unencrypted Steam preload for Forza Horizon 6 that leaked 155GB of game files online. This massive blunder resulted in the hotly anticipated racer hitting piracy and streaming sites well ahead of its May 15 early access date.

Stellar Blade 2 Won’t Be Published by Sony, Potentially Hinting at Multiplatform Launch Shift Up is taking the reins for Stellar Blade 2, opting to self-publish the sequel instead of relying on PlayStation. This move strongly hints at a multiplatform launch for the highly anticipated follow-up, aiming to maximize sales and lean into their newfound first-party service model.

Xbox Game Pass for Discord Nitro Subscribers Officially Announced Discord and Xbox officially revealed a “starter edition” of Xbox Game Pass bundled at no extra cost for Discord Nitro subscribers. The tier offers 10 hours of cloud gaming and a rotating library of over 50 classic games, including heavy hitters like Doom Eternal, Fallout 4, and Stardew Valley.

007 First Light Will Run at 60fps on PS5 Pro IO Interactive is smoothing out 007 First Light’s framerate issues just in time for its May 27 launch. The slick James Bond shooter is now confirmed to run at a buttery 60fps on the PS5 Pro, with a similar performance mode also available for the base PS5.

Crimson Desert Adds Surprise Claw Machine Mini-Game and Lets Pet Dogs Attack Enemies as Part of Update 1.06.00 Pearl Abyss continues its wild streak of weekly updates for Crimson Desert with patch 1.06.00. Alongside much-needed endgame resource extraction features, the patch randomly drops in a fully functional claw machine mini-game and finally allows you to command pet dogs to attack your enemies.

Directive 8020 Review Supermassive Games kicks off the second season of The Dark Pictures Anthology with Directive 8020, an excellent space horror adventure that channels Alien and The Thing. It’s a solid 10-hour experience with sharp writing, branching paths, and a new active stealth system, earning it high praise for narrative horror fans despite some minor audio issues.

Free Games & Deals#

If you’re hunting for physical game deals, Best Buy has the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 on PS5 and Switch for just $19.99. PC players can snag a solid discount on Capcom’s recently released sci-fi shooter Pragmata via Newegg for only $47.99 using promo code EPF4568. Finally, Switch 2 early adopters can pick up the Launch Edition of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for $39.99 at Best Buy, which includes the exclusive Werehog DLC pack.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Uncharted 4 Video Finally Reveals Details About Amy Hennig’s Scrapped Version: A new deep-dive video explores Amy Hennig’s original melee-focused vision for Uncharted 4 before her departure in 2014.
• Gamble With Your Friends Dev Celebrates 1 Million Sales, Says ‘Friendslop’ Is No Longer a Derogatory Term: The co-op casino-crawler party game Gamble With Your Friends hit 1 million copies sold in its first week, with devs proudly embracing the “friendslop” tag as a valid sub-genre.
• Fans Are Bracing Themselves for Spoilers After Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight Walmart Codes Became Playable on Xbox: Walmart digital codes for the upcoming Lego Batman have accidentally unlocked the game early on Xbox, leading to a flood of spoilers online.
• WWE Teaser Might Have Revealed the Gears of War: E-Day Release Date: A Gears of War: E-Day sponsorship attached to a September WWE Lucha Libre AAA event strongly suggests a late summer or early fall release for the prequel.
• Update Leak Suggests Four Steam Machine Packages Available at Launch, Alongside Reservation Queue: Datamined code from a Steam update hints at four variations of the upcoming Steam Machine hardware and a reservation queue to combat scalpers.